Gentle and Lowly, Chapter 22 - “To the End”

This reflection is by Visio Dei deacon Emily Barraclough.

In chapter 22, Dane Ortland expounds on how Christ, “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” (John 13:1) Ortland describes Christ taking on the sins of the world in a way I haven’t truly considered before.:

How did Jesus even retain sanity psychologically in absorbing the sum-total penalty of every lustful thought and deed coming from the hearts of God’s people—and that is one sin among many?

I often focus more on Christ’s physical suffering and the “loss of the experience of the Father’s love,” rather than God’s vengeance and wrath being poured out on Christ and what that would feel like. I don’t know that there’s a way for us to ever truly comprehend just how much Christ endured by sacrificing himself willingly.

Why did he sacrifice himself willingly? Because of his love for us. “His heart for his own is not like an arrow, shot quickly but soon falling to the ground; or a runner, quick out of the gate, soon slowing and faltering. His heart is an avalanche, gathering momentum with time; a wildfire, growing in intensity as it spreads.” In our sinful, human hearts, love is fickle, changing frequently, but Christ’s steadfast love means that, for those in Christ, our “future is secure.” And as Ortland describes, “not only is your future secure, on the basis of his death; your present is secure, proven in his heart.”